When planning an app development roadmap, it's unfortunately all too common for teams to create a checklist that focuses on hiring the right programmers and hammering out a plan for rapid user acquisition and monetization. Of course, these are extremely important objectives – for example, a sound monetization strategy is the bread and butter of any successful product. However, attending to these items exclusively is a hasty and ill-advised strategy. All app development teams should ensure their checklists include a number of other points as well.

In this slideshow, the Baidu Mobile development team from Chinese search giant Baidu offers insights into five factors that might be afterthoughts for some development teams, but should be elevated to core components of the planning process.

Failure to invest in these key items upfront could result in a substantial amount of lost time and money down the road. The good news? If you integrate these things into your app development plan from the get-go, you'll be able to reduce marketing and user acquisition costs significantly.

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